Azure Feeds

Azure Feeds Weekly: 03 Oct 2026 to 10 Oct 2026

Another quick spin through Azure this week, more GAs and previews.

NAT Gateway: AKS now provisions StandardV2 managed NAT Gateway by default.
PostgreSQL: Flexible Server is generally available in East US 3.
Agent 365 integration: public preview connects Azure API Management to runtime enforcement.

 

In this issue

⭐ Top picks this week

Azure Updates  19 items

Microsoft Blogs  28 items

Microsoft Tech Community  71 items

Azure Community  25 items

⭐ Top picks this week

Editor's picks, AI-assisted, advisory ordering of this week's items.

[Launched] Generally Available: Managed StandardV2 NAT Gateway for AKS

Generally Available (GA): AKS will now provision and manage a StandardV2 NAT Gateway for clusters using an AKS-managed virtual network, and StandardV2 is the default managed NAT Gateway SKU for new clusters in supported regions when you choose the managedNATGateway outbound type,

[Launched] Generally Available: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in East US 3

GA: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server is now generally available in the East US 3 region, you can deploy new flexible-server instances there or migrate/replicate workloads to that region.

[In preview] Public Preview: Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Azure API Management

Public preview: Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Azure API Management is now available; enable and evaluate this integration to connect your organisation's centralized governance with runtime enforcement for Microsoft Agent 365 (MCP) servers and tools.

Azure Updates (19)

↑ Top
Title Summary Date
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: Managed StandardV2 NAT Gateway for AKS
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Generally Available (GA): AKS will now provision and manage a StandardV2 NAT Gateway for clusters using an AKS-managed virtual network, and StandardV2 is the default managed NAT Gateway SKU for new clusters in supported regions when you choose the managedNATGateway outbound type, 2026-10-09
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server in East US 3
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
GA: Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server is now generally available in the East US 3 region, you can deploy new flexible-server instances there or migrate/replicate workloads to that region. 2026-10-09
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Microsoft Dev Box will be retired on September 18, 2028
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: Microsoft Dev Box will be retired on 18 September 2028, with the closing-down process beginning 14 September 2026, so plan and migrate developer environments and workloads before those dates. 2026-10-09
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Azure Deployment Environments will be retired on February 22, 2027
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: Azure Deployment Environments will be retired on 22 February 2027, with closing-down starting 14 September 2026, so export or migrate deployment pipelines and environment configurations ahead of that schedule. 2026-10-09
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: Exceptions in WAF for Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
GA: Exceptions for Web Application Firewall on Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door are now generally available, so update your WAF policies to add exceptions where required for application-specific traffic. 2026-10-09
🔍 Preview [In preview] Public Preview: Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Azure API Management
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Public preview: Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Azure API Management is now available; enable and evaluate this integration to connect your organisation's centralized governance with runtime enforcement for Microsoft Agent 365 (MCP) servers and tools. 2026-10-09
ℹ️ Update Announcing: Multiparty private offers in Microsoft Marketplace expands to Hong Kong
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Region expansion: Multiparty private offers in Microsoft Marketplace are now available in Hong Kong, enabling partners and ISVs to create and use multiparty private offers to procure third-party cloud and AI solutions for customers there. 2026-10-09
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: Anyscale on Azure
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Generally Available: Anyscale on Azure can now be deployed to your AKS clusters as a managed Ray platform to run distributed Python workloads and integrate with Azure services for production workloads. 2026-10-08
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: Enabling the Bulk admin role for SQL Server on Linux
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Generally Available: starting with SQL Server 2025 CU9 and SQL Server 2022 CU27, SQL Server on Linux supports the bulkadmin fixed server role and the ADMINISTER BULK OPERATIONS permission for performing bulk data import operations, so plan upgrades and role assignments accordingl 2026-10-08
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Pod name dimension in AKS pod platform metrics
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: Beginning 30 September 2027, Azure Monitor will stop supporting the pod name dimension for AKS pod platform metrics (for example kube_pod_status_phase) and these metrics will transition to aggregate pod counters, so update any alerts, dashboards, Log Analytics queries 2026-10-07
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Azure App Service on Azure Stack Hub
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: Azure App Service on Azure Stack Hub will be retired on 30 Sep 2029; from 30 Sep 2026 new installations will not be supported and no new releases or features will be provided, so plan migration or select an alternative hosting strategy well before the retirement date. 2026-10-07
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Support for Java 8, 11 and 17 will end on September 1, 2027
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: App Service support for Java 8, 11, and 17 ends on 1 Sep 2027; your apps will continue to run but will no longer receive security updates or customer support, so upgrade to a supported Java runtime, containerise, or otherwise remediate before that date. 2026-10-07
ℹ️ Update Retirement: Always Encrypted with Intel SGX Enclaves
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Retirement: Always Encrypted with Intel SGX enclaves in Azure SQL Database will retire on 31 October 2027 as SGX-enabled DC-series hardware is phased out, so transition to Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) enclaves before that date. 2026-10-07
🔍 Preview [In preview] Public Preview: AKS on bare metal now on Ubuntu
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Public preview: AKS on bare metal now supports Ubuntu, so you can deploy AKS clusters on Ubuntu-based bare-metal nodes; test in non-production and review the preview documentation for setup and known limitations. 2026-10-07
🔍 Preview [In preview] Public Preview: Azure HorizonDB expands to additional regions
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Public preview: Azure HorizonDB (managed PostgreSQL) is expanding to additional Azure regions, so you can deploy HorizonDB closer to your apps and users, and should re-evaluate region placement and update deployment or IaC templates and tests to use the new regions. 2026-10-06
🚀 Generally Available [Launched] Generally Available: SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines in Azure Bleu
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
GA: SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines is now available in Azure Bleu (France sovereign cloud), so you can deploy SQL Server VMs to meet French data residency and sovereignty requirements; update ARM/Bicep/Terraform templates, deployment scripts, and compliance artefacts. 2026-10-06
ℹ️ Update Announcing: Table discovery in OneLake Catalog search
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Starting 15 October 2026, Microsoft Fabric Search will return tables from semantic models, lakehouses, and mirrored databases as individual results, searchable by table name, description, or exact column-name match; update catalog integrations, documentation, and access controls 2026-10-06
🔍 Preview [In preview] Public Preview: Azure Backup for PostgreSQL flexible server and elastic cluster (v2)
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Public preview: Azure Backup for PostgreSQL flexible server and elastic cluster (v2) now captures physical backups from managed disk snapshots and stores them in Azure Backup vaults for long-term retention; validate restore procedures and configure vault retention and policies be 2026-10-06
🔍 Preview [In preview] Public Preview: IPv6 Support for Application Gateway WAF
Microsoft Azure Release Communications (website)
Public preview: Application Gateway WAF now inspects and enforces WAF rules for IPv6 traffic; test IPv6 listener and frontend configurations and validate rule behaviour before rolling out to production. 2026-10-06

Microsoft Blogs (28)

↑ Top
Title Summary Date
Introducing the Native Confluent Cloud Connector Experience in Azure Cosmos DB!
Azure Cosmos DB Blog (website)
Azure Cosmos DB now provides a native Confluent Cloud connector experience: you can stream Cosmos DB change feed directly into Confluent Cloud, so plan to use the integrated connector when building or updating your event pipelines. 2026-10-09
Nginx package update for PHP apps on Azure App Service
Azure App Service Blog (website)
Azure App Service PHP images are switching Nginx packages from the deprecated deb.sury.org repository to the official nginx.org repository; update any build scripts, package pins, custom images, or firewall rules that reference deb.sury.org, and test PHP apps for Nginx behaviour 2026-10-09
Post-quantum authentication: Why organizations should start testing certificate ecosystems now
Microsoft Security Blog (website)
Start testing your TLS certificate ecosystem for post-quantum (PQC) authentication compatibility now, and consider participating in Microsoft's PQC TLS Pilot Program to evaluate certificate and TLS handshake behaviour before PQC algorithms are required. 2026-10-09
Dynamic Workflows in Azure Functions Hosted Skills: Durable, AI-Led Work for Event-Driven Apps
Azure SDK Blog (website)
Azure Functions Hosted Skills adds dynamic workflows: the model emits a one-time plan (a DAG) that Durable Functions executes after the triggering invocation, enabling durable multi-step AI-led post-invocation work and reducing token use and latency per the blog's benchmarks. 2026-10-09
Power BI September 2026 Feature Summary
Power BI Blog (website)
Read the Power BI September 2026 feature summary for new Copilot and AI experiences, reporting, modeling, connectivity, developer, and mobile updates, and act on the listed deprecations by identifying impacted reports and scheduling remediation. 2026-10-09
Synced iCloud Keychain passkey registration succeeds despite Device-Bound-only passkey profile
Microsoft Entra Blog (website)
If you set a Default Passkey Profile to Device-bound-only with AAGUID restrictions, be aware pilot users can still register a synced iCloud Keychain passkey (appears as "Passkey (Synced) - iCloud Keychain"); review the Security info page and tenant warning banner, and remove or r 2026-10-09
Adding persistence to the Aspire dashboard
Aspire Blog (website)
Aspire 13.6 adds dashboard persistence and run history, storing telemetry and run data across restarts in a local SQLite database accessed via Dapper, so upgrade to 13.6 to retain dashboard history after restarts. 2026-10-09
New Wiki Editor Experience
Azure DevOps Blog (website)
Azure DevOps Wiki now replaces the old editor with a Monaco-based editor (the same editor tech as Visual Studio Code), bringing VS Code-like editing capabilities while preserving existing Wiki features; test editor-dependent workflows and update team documentation or training. 2026-10-09
Pre-authenticated (tempauth) URLs are retiring: move to Microsoft Entra ID tokens before April 1, 2027
Microsoft 365 Developer Blog (website)
Retirement: Starting 1 April 2027, Microsoft Graph file APIs will no longer return pre-authenticated (tempauth) URLs, so update any app or service that relies on tempauth links to authenticate file API requests with Microsoft Entra ID access tokens. 2026-10-09
Azure App Service Community Standup: Platform Release Channels & WebSSH
Azure App Service Blog (website)
Test App Service for Linux Platform Release Channels and use WebSSH for custom containers (demonstrated in the community standup) to validate runtime patches and inspect failing backend connections during troubleshooting. 2026-10-08
Azure Document Intelligence and Azure Content Understanding: a practical guide
Microsoft Foundry Blog (website)
Use the Microsoft Foundry guide to map your document extraction workload against extraction architecture, layout requirements, deployment constraints, and evaluation criteria to decide whether to adopt Azure Document Intelligence or Azure Content Understanding. 2026-10-08
3 lessons from frontier AI vulnerability research
Microsoft Security Blog (website)
Microsoft Security's FORGE Lab is scaling frontier AI vulnerability research from Windows to the Linux kernel, so security teams should monitor FORGE advisories and proactively assess Linux-kernel attack surface, patching, and detection across your fleet. 2026-10-08
Try SqlClient’s new connection pool for faster parallel connections
Azure SQL Devs' Corner (website)
Microsoft.Data.SqlClient includes a new connection pool that grows faster under concurrent connection requests, so test it in your apps to reduce connection-establishment latency when many requests open connections simultaneously. 2026-10-07
Upcoming SQL and AI Events to Put on Your Calendar
Azure SQL Devs' Corner (website)
Register or block time for the SQL and AI in-person events on 16-17 Oct 2026 (SQL AI App in a Day workshop, Sanford, Florida, on 16 Oct; Orlando's 19th Annual event on 17 Oct): check the Azure SQL Dev Corner post for registration and agendas. 2026-10-07
Automating Microsoft Entra ID User Lifecycle Management with PowerShell and Microsoft Graph
Microsoft Entra Blog (website)
Use the provided PowerShell and Microsoft Graph automation patterns to manage Microsoft Entra ID user lifecycles,identify and disable leavers, remove licences, and record actions,to streamline and standardise offboarding. 2026-10-07
A faster, lighter C# Dev Kit
.NET Blog (website)
C# Dev Kit has been rebuilt: solutions now open in about one second and the extension uses a fraction of the previous memory, so update to the new release to reduce startup time and memory footprint. 2026-10-07
Bringing Native AOT to the Aspire dashboard
Aspire Blog (website)
Aspire 13.6 introduces Native AOT for the dashboard, improving startup and deployment times, so test and adjust your Blazor, Fluent UI, JSON, and Dapper code paths for AOT compatibility before upgrading. 2026-10-07
Proactively monitor Azure VPN Gateway tunnel disconnections
Azure Networking Blog (website)
Configure an Azure Monitor alert to notify administrators when an Azure VPN Gateway tunnel enters the Disconnected state so you can investigate and mitigate site-to-site hybrid connectivity outages promptly. 2026-10-07
PostgreSQL to SQL Field Notes: Connections
Azure SQL Devs' Corner (website)
When migrating from PostgreSQL to Azure SQL, expect connection-related migration complexity: review the 'PostgreSQL to SQL Field Notes: Connections' guidance and allocate time to test and validate connection behaviour before cutover. 2026-10-07
CISO perspectives on managing vulnerability risks in the age of AI
Microsoft Security Blog (website)
CISOs should assess AI-powered vulnerability management tools and update vulnerability mitigation and resilience plans accordingly, folding the post's recommendations into governance and risk workflows. 2026-10-07
Bring agentic reasoning to Python function apps with Azure Functions Agent bindings (preview)
Azure SDK Blog (website)
Preview: Azure Functions Agent bindings for Python add bounded AI agentic reasoning to Python Function apps while keeping deterministic application code in control, so try the preview to add agentic capabilities to your serverless Python workloads. 2026-10-07
What’s new for Azure App Service in Azure CLI 2.91.0
Azure App Service Blog (website)
Preview: Azure CLI 2.91.0 adds a terminal command to diagnose Linux web app configuration and runtime errors, and access-restriction updates now preserve unrelated site configuration to prevent accidental overwrites. 2026-10-06
Connect Azure Functions to more services with managed connectors
Azure SDK Blog (website)
Azure Functions now supports managed connectors to 1,700 services, with triggers and typed clients for supported connectors, so you can integrate SharePoint, Azure Content Understanding, and Teams directly into your serverless workflows. 2026-10-06
UWP and WinUI 3 apps: UI testing with MSTest
.NET Blog (website)
Use MSTest together with Microsoft.Testing.Platform to run and debug UI tests for UWP and WinUI 3 apps against packaged, unpackaged, and AppContainer hosts, and apply the blog's setup and example test patterns for local runs and CI integration. 2026-10-06
From an Empty Folder to an AI Agent: Meet create-cosmos-agent
Azure Cosmos DB Blog (website)
Read the new create-cosmos-agent guidance from the Azure Cosmos DB Blog to organise agent memory, implement per-customer data isolation, and add source-tracing for answers when building Cosmos DB-backed AI agents. 2026-10-06
I’m the Only Developer on This Project. Do I Really Need RBAC?
Azure Cosmos DB Blog (website)
If you are the only developer on a Cosmos DB project, RBAC is not required for your app to run: you can continue using account keys and key-based authentication instead of immediately adopting RBAC. 2026-10-06
AADSTS500571 in Visual Studio to Azure Resource Manager; guest account disabled in resource tenant
Microsoft Entra Blog (website)
If Visual Studio sign-in to Azure Resource Manager fails with AADSTS500571 (invalid_grant), the guest user object is disabled in the resource tenant (for example tenant 72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47), so enable the guest account in that resource tenant or sign in with an a 2026-10-05
B2B Direct Connect - ( Drap and Drop on teams and No Guest account)
Microsoft Entra Blog (website)
Microsoft Teams B2B Direct Connect lets you run cross-tenant collaboration without creating guest accounts, so plan for users to use native accounts in each tenant (CompanyA, CompanyB, CompanyC) and configure Direct Connect for cross-tenant Teams collaboration instead of adding g 2026-10-05

Microsoft Tech Community (71)

↑ Top
Title Summary Date
Protecting Organizations from External Email Risks in Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft Purview DLP introduces a policy to stop Microsoft 365 Copilot from grounding responses in external or unverified sender emails, so administrators should configure this policy to restrict Copilot grounding to trusted internal mail to reduce cross-prompt injection risk. 2026-10-09
Why DLP for External Web Search in Microsoft 365 Copilot Matters?
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft Purview DLP adds a rule to prevent sensitive data from being sent to external web search when Microsoft 365 Copilot's web search is enabled, so admins should enable and tune that DLP rule to stop credit card, passport, and SSN data from reaching Bing queries. 2026-10-09
Are bigger agents better? How to design agents that scale
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
When expanding an agent's scope by adding tools or knowledge sources, expect more choices, context, and execution paths and plan for that added complexity so the agent remains reliable as it scales. 2026-10-09
Where Community and Code Connect: MVPs at Nebraska.Code 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Nebraska.Code 2026 was a community conference with Microsoft MVPs presenting sessions and networking opportunities; there are no platform changes announced in the recap. 2026-10-09
Earn the Digital Sovereignty specialization and stand out in a growing market
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Partners: pursue the Digital Sovereignty specialization to validate capabilities delivering secure, compliant, locally governed solutions using Microsoft Sovereign Cloud and to respond to earlier sovereignty requirements from customers. 2026-10-09
Finding the Elusive MDE PUA Audit Events on Linux
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
If you investigate potentially unwanted applications (PUA) on Linux with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, follow this Tech Community post to locate where MDE surfaces PUA audit events on Linux and collect those events for investigation. 2026-10-09
Partner Blog | Build your digital sovereignty practice now
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Partners: start building a digital sovereignty practice using Microsoft Sovereign Cloud and target the Digital Sovereignty specialization to meet customer requirements on data residency, operator access, encryption, resilience, and where AI workloads run. 2026-10-09
A closer look at noise reduction in Stacks What-If
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Noise reduction for Azure Deployment Stacks What-If was co-released with the GA of What-If; enable or configure noise reduction to suppress irrelevant diffs in your deployment what-if results. 2026-10-09
Prepare for Windows Update certificate rotation in 2027
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Certificates used by Windows Update expire on May 17, 2027 and June 19, 2027; update your devices or apply Microsoft-provided solutions before those dates to keep Windows Update connectivity. 2026-10-09
Welcoming Logitech to the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Logitech Rally Bar 2, Tap IP 2, and Tap Scheduler 2 are now certified on the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform and are rolling out globally, so plan procurement, configuration, and device security policies accordingly. 2026-10-09
When the Answer Isn’t in the Document: Metadata-Aware Agentic RAG with Foundry IQ
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
If your RAG pipeline ignores SharePoint metadata, implement a metadata-aware retrieval stage or use Foundry IQ so agentic RAG can return results that include root cause, severity, owner, and other metadata. 2026-10-09
New in Microsoft Marketplace: Offers published August 28-31, 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft Marketplace added 265 new offers (Aug 28-31, 2026); review the newly listed solutions such as AB Support and Acumens Vendor Deposits & Prepayments Management for trials or procurement. 2026-10-09
Azure Key Vault and BYOK: Lessons Learned
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Importing external key material into Azure Key Vault creates a new key version; because Azure Storage CMK may require the original CMK version to unwrap its account encryption key, re-importing the same material under a new version will not restore access. 2026-10-09
💲Announcing Free Grant and Pricing for Logic Apps Automation
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Azure Logic Apps Automation is now in public preview with announced pricing and a monthly free grant that includes one managed environment per subscription, so start testing within the free quota and plan for billed usage after the grant. 2026-10-08
Claude Haiku 5.5 is now available in Microsoft Foundry
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Claude Haiku 5.5 is now available in Microsoft Foundry; consider using it for high-volume, cost-sensitive agent tasks to get faster execution and roughly 75% lower cost than Claude Haiku 4.5 for most tasks. 2026-10-08
Build bigger forms in Microsoft Access
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft Access now supports Big Forms: form width and each vertical section can be up to 2,000 inches, and combined section height up to 2,100 inches, update form designs, templates, and display tests to use or accommodate the larger design surface. 2026-10-08
5 reasons ESPC belongs on your November calendar
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
ESPC Microsoft 365 and AI in Amsterdam (30 Nov-3 Dec 2026) is open for registration; use code Microsoft200 to get a €200 discount on your ticket. 2026-10-08
Introducing the Microsoft Sentinel ASIM EmailEvent schema
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Microsoft Sentinel's ASIM EmailEvent schema is now available, map your email data sources to the EmailEvent fields and update parsers, detections, and investigation content so rules work consistently across supported email products. 2026-10-08
New Resource Available: Event Recap Template for Event Producers
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft published a standard Event Recap template for event producers, customise and publish the template to speed post-event highlights, ensure consistent messaging, and amplify speakers, sponsors, and volunteers across Microsoft channels. 2026-10-08
Making evaluations cost-efficient
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Restructure Microsoft Foundry evaluation judge prompts to enable prefix caching and reduce LLM-as-judge token costs, and review evaluation batch configurations to cut judge call volume. 2026-10-08
Rethinking Memory Management for Azure HorizonDB on Disaggregated Storage
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
With Azure HorizonDB's disaggregated storage, review and adjust PostgreSQL memory and buffer-manager settings because many defaults assume an OS page cache that no longer applies. 2026-10-08
Calculate your projected Grow benefits by selling through Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Use the Marketplace value calculator in App Advisor to generate a tailored 3-year projection of Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace benefits for your business. 2026-10-08
The Microsoft AI and Agent Platform — Securing and Governing Intelligent Agents
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Apply expanded security and governance controls for agents on the Microsoft AI and Agent Platform, because agents that take actions can access sensitive data, call APIs, invoke tools, and act with delegated permissions. 2026-10-08
Lessons Learned #556: Finding the SQL Statement Behind a Query Hash in Azure SQL Database
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
If you have a query hash in Azure SQL Database, use Query Store to retrieve the SQL text and query ID, then inspect and tune the identified statements as shown in the article. 2026-10-08
Anyscale on Azure is now Generally Available
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Generally Available: Anyscale on Azure is GA, you can run the Ray runtime as a managed service on AKS inside your subscription (control plane operated by Anyscale), backed by an SLA and production support, so plan network, identity, and production deployment accordingly. 2026-10-08
Closing the AI Agent Governance Gap with Microsoft Foundry
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Implement governance for AI agents across Resources, Builders, Behaviour, and Cost using Azure services and Microsoft Foundry to gain visibility, guardrails, and cost accountability as agent counts scale. 2026-10-08
Join the momentum building for this year's Microsoft AI Tour
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft AI Tour starts 12 Oct 2026; to sponsor and receive the 2026-2027 sponsorship guide, contact [email protected]. 2026-10-08
Meet Microsoft at Oracle AI World 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft is sponsoring Oracle AI World 2026; register to attend and stop by booth #10028 to discuss Oracle AI Database@Azure and hear the four-cloud panel featuring Brett Tanzer. 2026-10-08
Public Preview: Onboard Kubernetes Clusters to Azure Arc with the Multicloud Connector
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Public preview: the Azure Arc Multicloud Connector can automatically discover eligible Amazon EKS and Google GKE clusters in connected AWS accounts and GCP projects and onboard them to Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes, so connect your cloud accounts and enable the connector to start 2026-10-08
Sending From Email Aliases – General Availability
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
General Availability (GA): Exchange Online now supports Sending from Aliases, allowing users to send mail from any configured alias/proxy SMTP address; review tenant settings and enable the feature where appropriate. 2026-10-08
Update network rules for the API Management service tag
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Action required by 30 November 2026: ApiManagement is expanding control-plane IPs included in the ApiManagement service tag, replace any hard-coded API Management IP addresses in NSGs, UDRs, and firewalls with the ApiManagement service tag to avoid management access disruption. 2026-10-07
Interim guidance for Manitoba permanent DST 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Manitoba will permanently remain on UTC-5 from 02:00 on 1 November 2026 (no fall-back); Microsoft will publish an update to support the change, review systems with timezone-dependent scheduling and await Microsoft's update. 2026-10-07
Azure SQL Database is retiring Always Encrypted with Intel SGX enclaves
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Retirement: Azure SQL Database will retire Always Encrypted Intel SGX enclave functionality on 31 October 2027; to retain secure-enclave capabilities, move databases off DC-series compute to a supported standard-series non-DC tier and update applications to VBS enclave mode befor 2026-10-07
Bulk changing blob tiers using Azure Storage Actions
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Use Azure Storage Actions to perform no-code, bulk access-tier changes (Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive) across many blobs instead of scripting per-blob updates; define conditions and run Storage Actions to move tiered data at scale. 2026-10-07
Streaming Grounded Chat to Desktop and Mobile Through a Rust Bridge
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Implement the Tauri v2 Rust-bridge pattern (desktop/mobile → Rust bridge → Rocket server → local retrieval → SSE) shown here to stream grounded chat while keeping JWTs, base URL, HTTP client, and SSE events correlated for correctness and security. 2026-10-07
From discovery to decision: A connected way to buy in Microsoft Marketplace
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Microsoft Marketplace now emphasises connected discovery, trials, comparisons, and purchase flows to match organisational buying needs; use the Marketplace to trial and evaluate solutions before procurement decisions. 2026-10-07
Azure AD Graph API retirement: action required for older versions of Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Retirement: Azure AD Graph API (legacy graph.windows.net) has been retired (shutdown completed July 1, 2025); upgrade any older Azure CLI (az ad) or Az PowerShell installations that still call Azure AD Graph to current releases that use Microsoft Graph. 2026-10-07
Remote PC connections in Windows App on Windows is now generally available
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Remote PC connections in Windows App on Windows are now generally available, you can access and manage physical and virtual Windows devices alongside Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Microsoft Dev Box in one app, and users can sign in without a work or school account. 2026-10-07
Introducing Grok 4.7 on Microsoft Foundry
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Grok 4.7 from SpaceXAI is now generally available in Microsoft Foundry Models, select Grok 4.7 when you need advanced reasoning, long-horizon problem solving, software engineering, or agentic workflows in your AI applications. 2026-10-07
Unleash Innovation at the Frontier: Join the Agent-a-thon
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Join the Frontier Innovation Series: Agent-a-thon, a hands-on experience for builders, technologists, and decision-makers to practice designing and implementing intelligent agents and agent-powered workflows. 2026-10-07
Secure Your AI Future: Join the Frontier Innovation Series
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Attend the Frontier Innovation Series: Secure Your AI Innovation and Frontier Journey to learn operational patterns, governance, and security controls for deploying AI with trust and compliance. 2026-10-07
Join Us for the Microsoft Agent Bootcamp: Turn AI Potential into Real-World Impact in Miami!
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Attend the Microsoft Agent Bootcamp in Miami on 10 December 2026 for a hands-on day to learn how to build, deploy, and scale intelligent agents and agentised solutions for business outcomes. 2026-10-07
Ready to Build the Future? Join Microsoft's Agent Bootcamp in Boulder, Colorado!
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Attend the Microsoft Agent Bootcamp in Boulder on 28 October 2026 for an immersive, hands-on session focused on building, deploying, and scaling AI agents with Microsoft tools and patterns. 2026-10-07
GitOps with Argo CD extension for AKS is Now Generally Available
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: GitOps with Argo CD extension for AKS is now generally available, deploy the Microsoft-managed Argo CD extension to run upstream Argo CD on AKS with integrated security, observability, and operational support for production use. 2026-10-07
Partner Blog | What's new for Microsoft partners: October 2026 edition
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Read the October 2026 partner update for AI Cloud Partner Program changes, resources, and guidance, and note Microsoft Ignite will run 17-20 November 2026 to plan skills, investments, and partner motions. 2026-10-07
Build Automated Agents, Workflows, and Apps - New in Copilot Studio
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Copilot Studio now generates agents and reusable skills from descriptions, lets you choose models, connect MCP tools and specialist agents, run Evaluations for quality testing, trigger email-driven workflows with human review, trace Activity paths, and generate full-stack apps on 2026-10-07
Study and Learn Agent: Now in 50 Languages, images improvements, ready when you open Copilot
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Study and Learn Agent is now generally available, supports 50 languages, includes improved image handling, and appears when you open Copilot in Microsoft Education tenants (aka.ms/studyandlearn), so update your deployment and educator guidance. 2026-10-07
New in Microsoft Marketplace: Offers published August 25-27, 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
314 new offers went live in Microsoft Marketplace (published 25-27 Aug 2026), including AI apps and agents such as Kore.ai's AI for Service for India, review the new listings and update procurement or trial plans accordingly. 2026-10-07
From Business Brief to Production Agent: Building in Three Stages, Not One
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Change your delivery sequence: build agent projects in three stages, start with a business brief, validate with low-cost experiments, then move to production infrastructure and hosting to avoid unnecessary time and cost. 2026-10-07
From Teams Admin Center to Pro Management Portal: The Readiness Checks That Actually Matter
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Migration: Android device management is moving out of Teams Admin Center into the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal, which becomes the primary management experience for Teams Rooms on Android, Teams Phones, Teams Panels, and SIP devices, deadline October 2026, so start planning 2026-10-07
Your Agents Need More Than a Place to Run
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
If you're moving agentic applications to production on your organisation's managed Kubernetes cluster, don't just run the container: validate that your platform tooling, approved network model, and security posture support agent workloads before deployment. 2026-10-06
Partner Blog | Build what is next: A partner guide to Microsoft Ignite 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Partner guide for Microsoft Ignite 2026 signals practical partner focus areas: prioritise AI-in-production scenarios, measurable business outcomes, and built-in security, governance, and responsible AI when planning offers and sessions. 2026-10-06
Azure Backup for PostgreSQL flexible server and elastic cluster (v2) is now in public preview
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Public preview: Azure Backup for PostgreSQL flexible servers and elastic clusters (v2) is now in public preview, offering physical snapshot-based backups, scalable protection, flexible retention, vaulted backups, and direct-to-server restores,test your backup/restore and retentio 2026-10-06
Engage Analytics: turn today’s signals into tomorrow’s strategy
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Use Engage analytics' existing views to measure reach, participation, and engagement across networks, communities, posts, and campaigns today, and use those metrics to inform your next communications actions while planned enhancements roll out. 2026-10-06
Growth margin is live: earn more when you grow your customers on strategic workloads
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Pricing/incentive change: Growth margin is live (from Oct 1, 2026), eligible CSP direct bill partners and distributors can earn incremental margin on qualifying new-to-offer, seat expansion, or strategic SKU mix growth for Microsoft 365 Copilot, M365 E5, M365 E7, Microsoft Defen 2026-10-06
From User inputs to Retrieval optimization: Making Retrieval Smarter with LLMs
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Design retrieval systems to go beyond query text: apply LLMs to extract structured signals from natural language inputs so ranking and retrieval can use cues users embed in their language rather than relying on keywords alone. 2026-10-06
Remote Desktop Protocol and PQC TLS 1.3 Hybrid
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Security update: Remote Desktop Protocol is moving toward post-quantum aware TLS 1.3 hybrid handshakes to mitigate future CRQC risks, so audit your RDP endpoints and plan client and server updates and testing for PQC-capable TLS support. 2026-10-06
Bring Marketplace publishing into your agentic development workflow
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
DevOps update: Marketplace Ingestion MCP lets you bring Marketplace publishing into your agentic development workflow by using natural language and AI agents to create, validate, publish, and manage offers instead of manually constructing API payloads,consider automating your off 2026-10-06
Voice agents in Foundry Agent Service: architecture, trust boundaries, and real-audio latency
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Foundry Agent Service now provides versioned, managed voice agents that consolidate speech, real-time models, turn detection, and orchestration, but you must still design identity and authorization, data retention, and network isolation, implement operational monitoring, and acco 2026-10-06
Azure Site Recovery for Azure Local Is Now Generally Available!
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Azure Site Recovery for Azure Local is now generally available, enabling disaster recovery for Azure Local cluster virtual machines by replicating workloads to Azure with a streamlined experience,evaluate and enable ASR for your Azure Local-hosted workloads. 2026-10-06
Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter - October 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Logic Apps Aviators Newsletter (October 2026) is published: review the product group and community updates, and the Ace Aviator feature, for any announced changes to Logic Apps behaviour, connectors, templates, or operational guidance that might affect your integration projects. 2026-10-06
The Questions Never Change
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
When adopting AI agents, treat them as a new asset class and apply standard IT governance: inventory agents, assign accountability, define permissible network and data access, and implement monitoring, auditing, and retention controls. 2026-10-06
Banking Challenges with AI and Agents
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Banks deploying agents at scale must explicitly choose runtime hosting and network isolation to balance agent autonomy with regulatory control; evaluate Microsoft options like Copilot Studio and design for hardened hosting, network segmentation, and operational oversight. 2026-10-06
A Local Hybrid Retrieval Pattern for Health Records
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Build a local hybrid retrieval layer for on-premises RAG on health records: apply conversation-aware query rewrite and expansion, generate BGE-M3 embeddings locally, and run concurrent vector and lexical searches in DocumentDB. 2026-10-05
AI-powered + human-focused: Powering workforce transformation
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Update your skilling programmes to combine AI-powered training tools with human-focused coaching and support so employees gain the confidence and skills needed to apply AI in their day-to-day work. 2026-10-03
Earn the new Clinical Applications specialization for Dragon Copilot
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Partners can now earn the new Clinical Applications specialization for Dragon Copilot,review the requirements and start attainment to unlock co-sell and referral eligibility, funding, Azure bulk credits, deployment support, and go-to-market assets. 2026-10-03
Beyond the Trace: The Science of Insight Quality
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
If you use Microsoft Foundry, start reviewing Insights (evidence-linked, reviewable findings) and use the published benchmarks and LLM-judge assessments to validate trace linkage, finding quality, and detection of known issues. 2026-10-03
Windows news you can use: September 2026
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
GA: Windows 11, version 26H2 is now generally available; plan your rollout using the new enablement package option, follow the updated support lifecycle guidance, and use the provided adoption and device management resources. 2026-10-03
Understanding Azure Container Apps Costs: ACA Compute, Metrics and Cost observability - Part 2
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Apply the Part 2 guidance to monitor Azure Container Apps resource consumption, detect over-provisioned replicas, distinguish app allocation from billed dedicated node capacity, and right-size workloads to reduce ACA costs. 2026-10-03
Released: September 2026 V2 Exchange Server Security Updates
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Released: September 2026 V2 Exchange Server Security Updates are available for Exchange Server SE RTM, Exchange Server 2019 CU14 and CU15, and Exchange Server 2016 CU23; note organisations must be enrolled in the Period 2 ESU programme to access the 2019 and 2016 updates, so sche 2026-10-03
From Classroom to Anywhere: Extending Surface for Learning
Microsoft Tech Community (website)
Education IT should evaluate the new Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch (Snapdragon X2 Plus) for campus deployments, testing charging, display, portability, and application compatibility before mass rollouts. 2026-10-03

Azure Community (25)

↑ Top
Title Summary Date
Speaking at NVIDIA GTC Berlin: Microsoft Sovereign Cloud and Sovereign AI
Thomas Maurer (website)
Attend Thomas Maurer's sessions at NVIDIA GTC Berlin to hear Microsoft's guidance on implementing Sovereign Cloud and Sovereign AI controls for managing data residency, compliance, and operational resilience. 2026-10-10
Azure Weekly Update - 9th October 2026
John Savill's Technical Training (youtube)
AKS NAT Gateway Standardv2 is becoming the default, so review cluster egress/NAT settings and update any automation or firewall rules; the Azure Weekly Update (9 Oct 2026) also covers AKS bare metal on Ubuntu, AKS Anyscale, and App Service Java 8, 11, and 17. 2026-10-10
The Bigger the Judge, the Better the Judgment? Not Quite.
Graham Gold (website)
Test multiple model sizes against your security evidence, reordered choices, reassuring text, and claims of authority: the author found bigger models were more stable but introduced other architectural trade-offs, so verify stability and behaviour before standardising on a size. 2026-10-09
Azure VNET Integration Doesn’t Mean Your Resources Are Private
Michael Durkan (website)
Do not assume VNet integration makes a resource private: during design reviews and audits explicitly verify public endpoints, inbound and outbound exposure, run pen tests, and lock down or remove public access where you need true privacy. 2026-10-08
Moore's Law has an end date
Scott Hanselman (youtube)
Hanselminutes video revisiting Michio Kaku's claim that Moore's Law effectively ended around 2020; there is no Azure product change announced, but review your hardware, thermal, and capacity planning assumptions for long-term performance scaling. 2026-10-08
Is Prompting Actually Programming?
Scott Hanselman (youtube)
Treat prompts as non-deterministic artefacts: because the same prompt can produce different code, start versioning prompts, record model and prompt-engine specifics, and add reproducibility tests and CI checks rather than assuming prompts equal source code. 2026-10-08
Scott & Mark Learn To... SemanticStart
Scott Hanselman (youtube)
Scott Hanselman and Mark Russinovich discuss the new SemanticStart project and AI-assisted coding; to try it yourself, listen to the episode and clone the repo at https://github.com/markrussinovich/SemanticStart to explore semantic search for launching Windows apps, tools, and se 2026-10-08
Inside Intune: Faster compliance updates for Windows devices
Rudy Ooms (website)
Client-driven compliance evaluation is now available for Windows devices in Intune: devices trigger a compliance check when they detect configuration changes instead of waiting for the next scheduled check-in, so expect faster compliance state updates and review your monitoring a 2026-10-08
Tech in Five - What is MCP?
John Savill's Technical Training (youtube)
Watch John Savill's 'Tech in Five' on MCP to learn how MCP's capability discovery lets clients and target AI services declare and negotiate capabilities, so you can plan integrations and dependency decisions for your AI workloads. 2026-10-07
What is actually in your Power Platform estate, and what it would cost to fix.
Peter Ruiter (website)
Run this open-source, read-only analyser against your Power Platform or Dynamics 365 estate to produce a backlog with estimated remediation cost ranges, a named list of checks it could not run, and a check that verifies contact-centre conversation handoff to a person. 2026-10-07
Cybersecurity Mittendrin - Folge 30 - KI-Prompts im Live-System testen? Der sichere Weg in den Ruin!
Tom Wechsler (youtube)
Avoid running live pentests or AI prompt tests in production: these can crash systems or cause prompt-injection data leaks, so conduct tests in isolated sandboxes or offline environments and implement prompt-injection mitigations and data exfiltration controls before any live tri 2026-10-07
Responsible AI in Azure: The 6 Principles Every AI Solution Needs
Travis Roberts (website)
Apply Microsoft's six Responsible AI principles to your AI systems: review and update design, documentation, user disclosures, accountability assignments, testing, and incident response so chatbots and other models meet those responsibility expectations. 2026-10-07
The New Copilot, Explained Simply: Home, Code and Autopilot
Imran Rashid (website)
Microsoft announced three new Copilot capabilities,Home, Code, and Autopilot,rolling out gradually; check tenant availability, assess cost and governance impact, and plan admin and developer policy changes for Office and code-assistance integration when they reach your organisati 2026-10-07
Panelist at the University of Minnesota: How to AI-Proof Your Career (3rd ITI Tech Symposium)
Steve Buchanan (website)
Steve Buchanan will be a panelist at the University of Minnesota's 3rd Annual ITI Technology Symposium on "How to AI-Proof Your Career", so if you want guidance on agentic AI and career impacts, attend the session or follow his posted materials. 2026-10-07
How to Find Azure Log Analytics Workspace Keys
Thomas Thornton (website)
Run the Azure CLI commands shown in the post to retrieve your Azure Log Analytics workspace keys, then supply those keys when configuring agents or integrations. 2026-10-06
Exploring GitHub Copilot Code Review for Azure DevOps
John Lokerse (website)
Public preview: GitHub Copilot Code Review is now available in Azure DevOps for Azure Repos, you can add Copilot as a reviewer on pull requests so it will analyse changed code, flag potential issues, and post comments directly in the PR. 2026-10-06
Six golden years for science
Scott Hanselman (youtube)
No Azure action required: this Hanselminutes short quotes Michio Kaku saying children are most likely to get hooked on science between ages 10 and 16, provided as a community clip rather than a product or service update. 2026-10-06
Manage system settings with Endpoint Privilege Management
Rudy Ooms (website)
Intune's Endpoint Privilege Management documents EPM System Settings that let standard users change approved Windows network settings without local administrator rights; review and configure these EPM System Settings in Intune to grant only the specific network elevations you req 2026-10-05
Last week in Agent Security Update 2: Zam-mad Max
Will Velida (website)
No new GA, preview, patch, or breaking change is announced in this Agent Security Update 2 post; it discusses agent vulnerabilities and operational observations, so audit your agent security configurations and await any specific remediation guidance from the author. 2026-10-05
Microsoft AI Update September 2026
John Savill's Technical Training (youtube)
Roundup video summarises September 2026 AI model updates (Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, Gemini 3.8 Flash, SpaceXAI Grok, OpenAI GPT-6 and 6.1); this is a community overview, not an official Azure release note, so consult vendor documentation for availability, API, or migration actions. 2026-10-05
My 33rd and 34th Pluralsight Courses Published: Career Growth, Visibility, and Recognition
Steve Buchanan (website)
Two new Pluralsight courses were published: "Career Growth: Turning Work into Recognition" and "Career Growth: Making Your Impact Visible", they are now available for engineers who need practical guidance on communicating contributions and increasing visibility. 2026-10-04
Microsoft Configuration Manager - Folge 24 - Microsoft Connected Cache - Das Tutorial!
Tom Wechsler (youtube)
Deploy Microsoft Connected Cache (MCC) to cache Microsoft update and content delivery on-premises; follow this step-by-step tutorial to configure and deploy MCC in your infrastructure to increase download speed and reduce Internet bandwidth usage. 2026-10-04
Intune Can Now Bypass Windows Update Group Policy
Rudy Ooms (website)
Enable the IgnoreWindowsUpdateGroupPolicies MDM setting in Intune to override Windows Update source selection and bypass on-device Group Policy/WSUS (MDMWinsOverGP does not apply), and apply this policy when migrating devices from GPO or WSUS to Intune. 2026-10-04
Azure capacity constraints in Europe: Microsoft puts dates and prices on the problem
Alan Kinana (website)
Report: Microsoft published dates and prices for Azure capacity constraints in Europe (pricing change and availability guidance); review North Europe deployments now and prepare to shift workloads, buy reservations, or update failover regions to avoid limited capacity and higher 2026-10-04
"High Confidence" Is Not a Security Control
Graham Gold (website)
Do not treat AI model "high confidence" scores as an automated security control: treat probabilistic outputs as advisory and add deterministic checks, monitoring, human review, and logging before automating security decisions. 2026-10-03

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